


to make you happy, to make you safe

by BeatrizCaelum



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, adam says to keith that shiro will never love him but our boy is strong, i'm not sure i got adam's character right, shiro is only mentioned actually, this is small but i'm kinda proud of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 00:21:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15545493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeatrizCaelum/pseuds/BeatrizCaelum
Summary: “I’ve seen the way you look at him.”The silence that follows grows thicker at each second. Keith’s throat burns and he makes a small sound; a vague attempt to answer that dies fast as he realizes he is more frustrated than prone to give Adam any satisfaction about his feelings whatsoever.





	to make you happy, to make you safe

“I’ve seen the way you look at him.”

The silence that follows grows thicker at each second. Keith’s throat burns and he makes a small sound; a vague attempt to answer that dies fast as he realizes he is more frustrated than prone to give Adam any satisfaction about his feelings whatsoever. He stays quiet, looking down to his astrophysics homework, and hopes that Shiro meets them soon and the subject is dropped. Not forever. He will get around to it. This is a matter Keith wants to take on his own hands, at his own time and speed; whatever he wants to do with the fact that his hearts always miss a beat whenever Shiro smiles, he wants to do it his way.

Every time Adam speaks or merely looks at him, a feeling that burns slow but steady overwhelms Keith’s entire being. He may be young, but he knows how to name it.  He was never jealous before, he realizes. Envious, yes. Resentful. Angry. Those are all words that could describe him at one point or another in his life – most of his life, even.

 _Young_ is another one. For now, at least.

Too young, perhaps, for what he desires.

“You should stop,” Adam says, and Keith squeezes his pen. Hard.

“Stop doing what exactly?” He is proud of how bold he sounds.

He refuses to look at Adam across the room – calm, collected Adam, going through some Garrison files as if neither of them have spoken a word. Adam refuses to meet his eyes, too. There is no risky dance of pupils; simply a ballet of intentions, no observable movement. Impossible to trace, to measure, and yet Keith feels it so strongly as if Adam had just slapped him in the rhythm of a song that is not playing.

 _You don’t know anything about me,_ Keith would have normally said.

But Adam does know that one thing about him.

“Looking at Takashi like he’s your boyfriend instead of mine.”

_Mine._

“You don’t own Shiro,” Keith growls. “And you can’t order me around.”

Adan sighs and finally drops the papers, giving Keith his full attention. He steals a quick look at the door; he knows Shiro is supposed to meet them – Keith, more specifically – at any moment.

“Look, I don’t mean to be harsh.” Adam starts and Keith hears the unspoken _cadet_ in his phrase. Never his name. “But someone needs to say it before your crush gets unbearable. Before you suffer too much. You won’t get what you want from Takashi. We have been together for years now. We’ll marry each other eventually.”

Keith tries to picture it – the altar, the guests, the black suits and even some doves flying on the sky; but he senses something in the future that is blurry and yet defiant, something that says things will unfold differently. _How_ differently he does not know, not yet, but he grasps it – that feeling of stars and possibilities – like a lifeline.

“I promise you I’m trying to help. I get you. Takashi… Takashi is something else.”

Keith wants to wipe out that look from Adam’s face. The expression of someone that has been kissed and held by Shiro and knows he will be kissed and held again and again. He wants to break his glasses. Instead, he takes a deep breath.

“Luckily for you, you’re young. Very young. There’s so much time to find someone that will love you back.”

“You seem very sure that this person can’t be Shiro,” Keith says, because he has nothing to hide.

Adam has the audacity to laugh.

“I’m sure.” His look softens. “Sorry, kid. I know this kind of stuff can be hard. Want an advice?”

“Oh, do enlighten me.”

“You should settle for _brother_. Be Takashi’s brother, kid. It’s the best you can get. Believe me.”

Keith believes him. For a moment. For more than one moment. For years.

For no second at all.                                                         

He repeats the word on his mind, trying to make sense of it. _Brother._ He does not have a sibling. He has never had one. Could Shiro occupy such a spot? Would it be better for both of them? _Would it make Shiro happier?_ Something heavy lands on Keith’s chest and stays there. His body is bony and small and battered and suddenly a prison of flesh and sadness. A body that has forgotten about love – a body that knows love well. Adam was right. Adam was wrong. Adam could be either. Keith could _make_ Adam’s words a lie. Keith couldn’t do anything. He will accept the truth, whatever it may be.

Adam mistakes Keith’s silence for acceptance and goes back to what he was doing. Keith stares at his homework. Keith stares at his memories with Shiro in the back of his mind, emerging slowly. He needs to learn how to feel these memories differently. Like a brother would.  

He can’t, at first.

However, Keith later finds out that he can do anything to protect Shiro; even if it means eating alive his own feelings as they fight to breathe. Keith suffocates them to a point he does now know that to believe. He forgets how he feels – how he has always felt. He forgets he wants to call Shiro his; call him Takashi.

Until he remembers.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a reminder: English is not my first language. Feel free to point out any mistakes you find. I hope you guys liked it. Please be terrified with me about season 7?!?! AAAAAA??
> 
> find me on tumblr! let's talk about sheith! palallura or holyhikari, either is fine.


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